The IMS is pleased to announce that Dr. Richard Horner has been appointed to be Chair of the IMS Graduate Faculty Appointments Committee effective June 1, 2017 for a 3 year term.

Dr. Horner is Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Toronto, and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. His research identifies mechanisms of sleep, sedation and anesthesia, and their impact on vital functions such as motor control and breathing. He is author of over a hundred research papers in peer-reviewed journals and major textbooks as first or senior author. Dr. Horner also leads undergraduate and graduate teaching in sleep science in the Faculty of Medicine spanning physiology to clinical problems. His research has been continuously funded by CIHR since 1998. He also leads a CIHR-funded research and training grant that brings trainees, scientists and clinicians together in sleep science, medicine and health. Dr. Horner has won awards for his research and teaching, including from the Faculty of Medicine in 2015 (for‘Sustained Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship’) and 2013 (‘Excellence in Linking Undergraduate Teaching to Research’). Dr. Horner engages with the media on various platforms (radio, television and print) to discuss sleep science and health, and is author of a book for the general public – The Universal Pastime: Sleep and Rest Explained. He also collaborated on a short play – Somniloquy with the UK playwright Craig Baxter – that dramatized the workings of the brain in sleep.

Dr. Horner has been an active graduate faculty member in the IMS since 1998 where in addition to supervising graduate students, he was a member of the IMS Admissions Committee for several years. He was recently appointed as a Graduate Coordinator in 2016 and has acted as a member of the Appointments Committee since that time.

The IMS would also like to thank Dr. Brenda Toner for her years as Chair of the IMS Appointments Committee. Her contribution is greatly appreciated.